Dr Tony Bleetman, Accident and Emergency consultant at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital, said he agreed with the suggestion that police chiefs wanted doctors to report patients who had been treated for knife or gunshot wounds.

He said patient confidentiality was the "cornerstone" of the doctor-patient relationship and should not be breached unless there were "extenuating" circumstances.

However, Dr Bleetman said these circumstances should include instances where doctors have to treat victims of shootings or stabbings as police involvement could save further lives.

This year alone, at least 50 teenagers have been murdered in Britain - 11 of those were shot dead and most of the others were stabbed.

According to reports, the Association of Chief Police Officers is expected to tell the Government that law enforcement alone cannot tackle the problem and that other agencies must help by changing the way they work.

Senior officers are expected to argue that doctors should inform the police about patients even without their consent.

Heartlands Hospital currently works in partnership with West Midlands Police by gathering information about "violent hot spots" anonymously from patients.

Dr Bleetman said: "We are working in terms of feeding back anonymous assault data to the police, which helps them work out where assaults are taking place.

"But this is just statistics and does not identify anyone."

Reports about the Acpo proposals have caused concern among medical staff and civil rights activists.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association said: "If the victim wants the police to be called, they will be called.

"We don't want to see a blanket rule that a doctor should report something to the police."